


Limerence

by lossie



Category: Naruto
Genre: Comedy, F/M, Falling In Love, Gen, I Will Go Down With This Ship, POV Hatake Kakashi, Romantic Comedy, Teenage Dorks, They are too adorable for their own good, rated for language, same age au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 14:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13882668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lossie/pseuds/lossie
Summary: Same age AU. Team 7 and Team Minato are in a desperate need of a get-along shirt, and Kakashi is a brat who doesn’t know how to emote like a proper human being. Bonus Itachi, because he is one of my favourites. Very much kakasaku-flavoured.





	Limerence

**Author's Note:**

> We need more of this AU. Or rather I need more Kakashi being a surly jealous teenager with a crush.
> 
> Special dedication to all the lovely kakasaku shippers who have been showering me with support and very kind words over the last two weeks – this is a sort of thank-you gift just for you!

Kakashi was not prone to whining. In fact, his glaringly blasé attitude seemed to annoy people to the point of insanity. It wasn’t necessarily because he didn’t care about stuff. Contrary to popular belief, Kakashi cared and did so quite deeply. The problem laid with verbalizing those feelings, which was not his strongest suit by any stretch of the imagination.  
  
“Do you _really_ have to go, sensei?” As emotionally stunted as he was at the tender age of thirteen, Kakashi understood that it was unbecoming and more or less pointless to complain about something completely out of anybody’s control, but he couldn’t help himself and did so anyway.  
  
“You won’t even notice I’m gone,” Minato-sensei informed him with a sunny smile as the two of them made their way to the training grounds. If he was surprised by his student’s uncharacteristic moodiness, he didn’t show it.  “Besides, I have it on good authority that Kushina is planning something fun for you guys, so I’m sure you will be too busy to even remember I’m not there!”  
  
Forgetting about Minato-sensei’s absence for the next month was completely out of the question and the man was delusional if he thought otherwise. Kakashi liked his sensei’s wife just fine. True, she was a bit of a loudmouth and had a horrible temper, but she was also very friendly and compassionate, and he highly appreciated that she never forced him to talk or interact with people when he clearly wasn’t in the mood to do so. She wasn’t a problem, but her team sure as hell was.  
  
How such a nice person ended up saddled with Naruto and Sasuke, the two most obnoxious genin to ever genin, would forever remain a mystery. The sheer amount of stupid shared between those two was utterly ridiculous. Come to think of it, Kakashi had a lot of trouble comprehending how Minato-sensei and Kushina-san managed to create an idiot of Naruto’s calibre, because it simply made no sense whatsoever. Sasuke was destined to be a pain in the proverbial ass simply based on the virtue of being Obito’s cousin, but Naruto seemed to have gotten all of the worst Uzumaki personality traits available multiplied by times infinity. To top it all off, Naruto usually ended up right in the middle of every mess Sasuke and Obito created. That is if he wasn’t the ringleader of the whole ordeal in the first place, in which case the end result was even worse. Kakashi hated working with Kushina’s team, because he always had to play referee and all he ever got for his trouble was bruises and some very unimaginative name-calling. He swore that if he got called a stick in the mud one more time simply because he didn’t fancy scraping their remains from the ground after yet another pointless fight he was going to murder all three of them in their sleep.  
  
Unfortunately, Minato-sensei had to go and so Kakashi was destined to suffer through thirty days of frustration on his own while trying to come out of the experience with at least a semblance of his sanity still intact. Oh joy.  
  
When they arrived to the training ground three, only the girls and Kushina were there. Whatever they were discussing made them giggle like hyenas on drugs. Seriously, emitting sounds at this amplitude should have been forbidden by law or something!  
  
Sakura was the first one to notice their arrival and waved at them with a wide smile. She was wearing a red shirt and tight long pants instead of her usual dress, and her long hair was tied up in a high ponytail. All in all, she looked really pretty. Not that she didn’t look pretty on an average day, but there was something particularly appealing about the new getup. To his utter horror Kakashi could feel his face heat up almost immediately after thinking about that and the blush stayed put even when she turned her attention back to the conversation like she hadn’t just made his heart skip a beat. There had to be something seriously wrong with the wiring in his brain, because he seemed to have recently lost any semblance of control over his reactions around her, which was incredibly frustrating and yet another reason why Kakashi didn’t exactly relish the idea of having joined training sessions with Team 7 for an entire month.  
  
“Ah. So that’s how it is, huh?”  
  
Kakashi froze at the voice. In his needlessly flustered state he had completely forgotten that Minato-sensei was literally right there.  
  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, sensei,” he informed the man in the most aloof voice he could manage, which wasn’t saying much.  
  
“It’s perfectly natural. After all Sakura-chan is very cute, isn’t she?”  
  
For a moment Kakashi considered denying it just so he could spare himself further embarrassment – he was already mortified enough, thank you very much. Then again it was only Minato-sensei. The man wasn’t likely to start babbling about Kakashi’s ridiculous crush to everyone and their mother just to tease him. In fact, the probability of it happening was close to zero.  
  
“So what if she is?” He asked rather defensively as he crossed his arms and looked up at his teacher with a frown. Although he was aiming for intimidating, he had a sneaky suspicion he looked like a pouting child more than anything else.  
  
Minato-sensei smiled at him before ruffling his already messy hair like he used to do when Kakashi was much younger. It never failed to annoy the hell out of him and he scowled at the man in silent outrage. As per usual his brief stint of temper was ignored.  
  
“Nothing. Or everything. It depends on what you intend to do about it, doesn’t it?” Minato spoke in a languid matter-of-fact tone of voice, the twinkle of mirth in his eyes a clear indication that he was having fun at Kakashi’s expense.  
  
Fortunately Kakashi didn’t have to answer his sensei’s question, which he suspected wasn’t even meant to be answered to begin with, because the Morons Three decided to grace the training fields with their presence at this very moment and, as per usual, did so loudly enough to wake up the dead in the next village over. Following right behind them was Sasuke’s aniki, Itachi, who appeared to be vaguely amused by the ruckus, but not bothered by it in the slightest, mostly because he was a man of seemingly infinite patience.  
  
“You’re stupid!”  
  
“Your face is stupid!”  
  
“Shut up, duck ass!”  
  
_I’m surrounded by idiots_ , Kakashi thought rather sourly, his hand itching to smack all three on the heads to make them quiet. It was way too early for so much noise.  
  
He felt a sense of vindictive satisfaction when Sakura scowled at the trio instead of smiling when she saw them and then he consciously tried not to think about how possessive he was of her smiles, because that was kind of disturbing and too mushy for his liking.  
  
“Oi, you three! Shut it!” Kushina-san bellowed from where she sat, propped against one of the pillars in the middle of the clearing. “And hello there, Itachi-kun!”  
  
The Uchiha heir bowed slightly in response. “Good morning, Kushina-san, Sakura-chan, Rin-san.”  
  
Interestingly enough Sakura blushed at the suffix. It might have had something to do with Itachi’s barely-there, Uchiha-patented, and supposedly charming smile, but for all Kakashi knew it could have just as easily been a combination of both. Regardless, he didn’t like it one bit.  
  
Minato-sensei nudged Kakashi to move and he did so very reluctantly.  
  
“Hello everyone!” Minato said loudly enough to be heard over the boys who were still arguing as if their very lives depended on it. A litany of enthusiastic hellos and good-mornings followed his statement.  
  
Kakashi mumbled something indistinguishable in lieu of a proper greeting and then, not bothering to wait for a response, he immediately moved away from the group to start with his katas. There was a distant possibility that if he pretended he was alone people would leave him be, at least for a while. As he went through his clan forms at a leisured pace, he observed from the corner of the eye that the girls were also starting to warm-up and were coercing the trio of arguing idiots to do the same. The adults stood to the side, talking about something probably mission-related in hushed voices. Although Kakashi’s sense of hearing was slightly better than average, he was unable to distinguish the exact subject of the discussion. Not that it was particularly hard to guess.  
  
Talk of war has become increasingly more common in the last two years, especially amongst the higher ranking shinobi. Iwa and Suna seemed the most eager for bloodshed out of  all the Elemental Nations, but the rest was not too far behind. At this rate the escalation of conflict was practically inevitable. Having experienced an indirect consequence of what war could inflict upon people, Kakashi wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about war. He avoided thinking about death and loss as much as possible, because those thoughts tended to stir up some very unpleasant memories and usually left him with horrible nightmares, but every time Minato-sensei was called away recently he couldn’t help himself. His teacher was essentially the last precious person Kakashi had left in this world. No matter how much the man annoyed him with his overt cheerfulness and more or less good-natured teasing, he didn’t want him to die.  
  
“Alright, Team 12! Come here for a second.”  
  
Minato-sensei waved them over a short distance away. Kakashi stopped mid-motion and reluctantly joined his teammates. Due to the interruption he would have to start over with the katas and that was just a waste of time.  
  
“Will you really be gone for a month, sensei?” Rin asked with a put-upon expression.  
  
Their teacher sighed heavily. “Unfortunately, yes. In fact, it may actually take a bit longer. If I’m delayed I’ll try to send you a heads-up, so you won’t have to worry about my old bones too much, alright?”  
  
“Yes, sensei,” they said in unison.  
  
“Ah, good, good,” he said with a small smile. “I want you to promise me that you will be nice to Kushina. She will have her hands full with you lot as is, so try not to go out of your way to give her a hard time.”  
  
Kakashi sent Obito a side-long glance. Unsurprisingly, Rin and sensei did so as well, which made the boy fidget nervously and blush a very unbecoming shade of puce.  
  
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”  
  
“No reason.” Minato-sensei’s words kind of contradicted his facial expression, which clearly suggested what he thought of Obito’s less than stellar behaviour. “Either way, I arranged for some additional tutors for you, so you hopefully won’t have time to cause _too much_ property damage while I’m gone. Obito, I asked Itachi-kun to train with you. Although you haven’t awaken your Sharingan yet, I think it will be good for you to practice some of the clan jutsus with someone who knows what they are doing. You two share the same chakra natures, so maybe you will be able to master a new jutsu as well.”  
  
“Wow, really?! That’s so cool!”  
  
It was a well-known fact amongst the general public that Obito idolized his older cousin to the point of hero-worship, although he wasn’t yet as Itachi-obsessed as Sasuke. Admittedly, there was plenty to admire about Uchiha Itachi. The man’s track record was flawless and his reputation preceded him Even though it was probably very petty and childish, Kakashi considered Itachi to be his sort-of rival. He had him beat when it came to the chunin promotion by one whole year, but if he didn’t manage to become a jounin soon, he would fall behind and that was completely out of the question. Then again given the fact that the Uchiha had a kekkei genkai to back them up, Kakashi actually thought he was pulling ahead. After all it was harder to master jutsus without an advantage of all-seeing eyes.  
  
“Rin, you will be working with Kushina herself. She offered to teach you some more advanced taijutsu and ninjutsu. We do have to get your stamina up a bit.”  
  
“Thank you, sensei,” Rin said with a beaming smile.  
  
“And you, Kakashi, will be working with both Itachi-san and Kushina. I don’t think you need me to point out what you have to work on, do you?”  
  
No, he didn’t. Although Kakashi was considered to be a genius, teamwork was a bit of a foreign concept to him. He was somewhat aware that it was vital to shinobi work – after all it was the main reason why all ninja completed missions in units and rarely accepted solo assignments – but cooperation within Team 12 has always been a bit lacklustre due to Kakashi’s reluctance to trust Obito and Rin with anything as well as their unwillingness to give him at least the benefit of doubt. As much as Minato-sensei wanted to think of them as somewhat reluctant friends, they were barely colleagues, and even that seemed like a bit of a stretch.  
  
Still, Kakashi nodded in silent agreement, because there was no point in arguing that maybe he would have worked better with teammates who could actually look after themselves and didn’t require constant supervision (Obito) or protection (Rin).  
  
“Alright. I’m off then. See you soon, kids!” And with one last cheerful smile Minato-sensei disappeared in a flash of light of his signature jutsu.  
  
The training session that followed his departure proceeded with surprising efficiency. All in all, dividing them into smaller groups actually turned out to be a pretty brilliant idea. Obito and Sasuke still bickered like old ladies at a market place as they worked on the theory behind some Fire Style jutsu with Itachi, but they were not fighting yet, which was progress in and on itself. Naruto was paired up with Kakashi for taijutsu practice after both of them were done with their set of katas while Kushina discussed something with Sakura and Rin. Although Kakashi was kind of distracted by whatever Sakura was doing when he glanced in her direction every now and again, he still managed to defeat Naruto fair and square three times out of five. Then again, Naruto was just a genin and the only tactic he ever employed during spars was an out-right attack with an army of Shadow Clones, so winning against him wasn’t much of an accomplishment. However the idiot had pretty impeccable timing and managed to land a pretty heavy hit on Kakashi during their last round, which made his entire head feel a bit funky.  
  
“Your left eyes is kind of droopier,” Naruto informed him as he helped him stand up.  
  
“It’s called a black eye, you dimwit,” was Kakashi’s immediate response, since he was in too much pain to actually care about what came out of his mouth.  
  
“Oi, I was just trying to be nice!”  
  
Kakashi would have rolled his eyes in exasperation if he didn’t know from experience how much it would hurt. “By pointing out that you punched me in the face?”  
  
Naruto blinked at him a bit owlishly.  
  
“Oh. Right. Sorry about that, mate.”  
  
“Whatever.”  
  
By this point the training session has been going on for around four hours. Kushina-san seemed to realize that there was not much point in keeping them here for much longer, especially with both Naruto and Kakashi looking like they have taken a bath in dirt, so she let them go home right after she made them promise to meet her at eight sharp at the same training ground the next day for a few friendly rounds of good old-fashioned ninja-style game of tag.  
  
Sasuke, Itachi, and Obito went home together in the direction of the Uchiha compound, because apparently Mikoto-san was expecting them for dinner and they were already running a bit late.  
  
Naruto and Kushina coerced Rin into joining them for a bowl of ramen and tried to do the same with Kakashi and Sakura, but both of them begged out of the invitation, stating that they had other plans.  
  
In Kakashi's case it was a big fat lie. The only thing that waited for him was an empty house and some leftovers. Sakura, on the other hand, probably had some actual plans for the afternoon.  
  
Since they lived in the same part of the village they decided to go home together. They walked side by side through the busy streets in complete silence, but Kakashi didn’t really mind. Spending some alone time with Sakura was a rare treat, even if they weren’t doing much of anything. She was usually flanked either by her team or one of her friends, so the opportunity to simply enjoy her presence in peace made Kakashi a bit giddy. It was actually kind of embarrassing how much he liked just being near her.  
  
“I meant to ask you earlier... You seemed kind of sad today,” she said quietly as they reached her house and stopped in front of it. “Did something happen?”  
  
“I’m fine.”  
  
“Nuh-huh. I don’t believe you.”  
  
“Well, it’s your problem, isn’t it?”  
  
“Do you have to be like this?”  
  
Her voice held a tone of vague accusation, which Kakashi didn’t like at all.  
  
“Like what?”  
  
“Bloody difficult, that’s what!”  
  
“I’m not difficult,” he muttered with a frown. “You, on the other hand, are very nosy.”  
  
Predictably enough, his comment set her off.  
  
“Well excuse you! So sorry that me worrying about your well-being offends you so much!”  
  
She would have stomped away if Kakashi didn’t catch her by the arm. The glower she sent his way in response to the gesture made him release her, but, to his relief, she didn’t immediately make a run for it.  
  
“Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”  
  
Her eyes narrowed. “Yes, you did.”  
  
“Alright, yes, I did. You _are_  nosy.” She poked him in the chest with a chakra-laced finger and he winced. “But I don’t mind it. Mostly.”  
  
“Hmpf. You're insufferable.”  
  
Kakashi grinned impishly. “I know.”  
  
“Good!” Her smile as she teased him was not as vibrant as he would have liked, but it was nice nevertheless. “Now please tell me why are you acting so weird. Did I say or do something, or…?”  
  
“No,” he interrupted her before she could finish. They were apparently back to square one.  
  
“I call bullshit.”  
  
“What? I’m telling the truth! It wasn’t you.”  
  
“Who then?”  
  
“Who what?”  
  
She groan in clear annoyance. “Are we _really_ going to do this?”  
  
Sensei’s words echoed in Kakashi’s head. Did he really intend to keep his crush on Sakura a secret for the rest of eternity? It didn’t make much sense. He was already too emotionally compromised to stop liking her, so maybe the only way to make the situation more bearable was admitting to it point-blank while simultaneously hoping she wouldn’t punch him too hard. At any rate it probably wasn’t a wholly horrible idea to at least try.  
  
“You blushed,” he blurted out in a rush, praying to Kami that what was visible of his face wouldn’t turn red.  
  
“What?” Her squeak of surprise just about proved that Kakashi was awful at emoting.  
  
“When Itachi-san called you Sakura-chan. You blushed.”  
  
The clarification only make her gawk harder.  
  
“Say what?”  
  
“You know damn well what I said!”  
  
“B-but… _How_?!”  
  
It started to feel like she was pulling his leg and the idea was surprisingly painful to bear.  
  
“You know _what_? Nothing! Forget I said anything. I going home. Bye.”  
  
This time it was Sakura who caught him. Kakashi’s brain short-circuited and then went into overdrive as she quickly leaned in and pressed a brief kiss against his masked cheek. Up close he could see the faint dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks, and she seemed even prettier when he could feel her breath ghost over his face.  
  
“Don’t worry about Itachi- san. I like you better,” she informed him with a bashful smile before running up the stairs and disappearing from view inside her house.  
  
Kakashi barely resisted the urge to brush his fingers against the spot where she kissed him, but he couldn’t quite force himself to stop smiling like a loon.

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, the title is a noun that means "the state of being infatuated with another person" ;)


End file.
